Tradition on the Move: U.S. Library of Congress holds 5 million Look images

May 26, 2013

News designer Nicole Bogdas has been exploring her 715 Locust Street workplace and posting photos on Instagram with the hashtag #dmrhistory. See them at DesMoines Register.com/onthemove. About this photo: 'I explored a lot of spaces that had become warehouses for unused items. My favorite finds were these pieces of the old presses scattered among other debris in the basement.'

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The Register & Tribune’s role in preserving the visual history of 20th century America reaches far beyond Iowa.

Consider this: Fully one-third of the Library of Congress’ archive of 15 million images consists of digitized negatives from the national photo magazine Look, which for decades was a prominent (if not always profitable) cornerstone of the R&T/Cowles media family.

Look magazine was launched in Des Moines with a February 1937 issue, overseen by Mike Cowles and eventually relocated to New York. The 5 million Look images now in the Library of Congress stretch from the 1950s until the magazine’s demise in 1971. Look rose and fell alongside similar magazines of the era, especially foreruner Life and follower Pic.

Part of the lore of Look’s launch is that the debut issue’s back cover featuring actress Greta Garbo, when folded in half, resembled female genitalia and helped to fuel a spike in sales. Executive Luther Hill — as detailed in The R&T history “Covering Iowa” by William B. Friedricks of Simpson College in Indianola — had to fly to Washington, D.C., and negotiate with the U.S. Postal Service to prevent a mailing ban.

Influential film director Stanley Kubrick (“2001: A Space Odyssey,” “A Clockwork Orange,” “The Shining”) began his career as a Look photographer.

Look reached a peak circulation of nearly 8 million copies per biweekly issue. It opened a new headquarters in 1958 in Des Moines at 10th and Mulberry streets and boasted more than 1,300 employees in the ’60s.

Curator Beverly Brannan of the Library of Congress said that her staff still issues one or more Look photos daily — whether it’s because somebody’s mother or aunt happened to be photographed, or people seek a favorite celebrity, or photos are sought to illustrate a Cold War history book.

Assuming the photographer in question hasn’t attached additional royalties to the photo in question, a duplication fee of $50 is the basic cost to obtain a Look image.

The original bags of photo negatives remain safe and dry in a special federal warehouse.

“One of the things we did get before sequestration was climate-controlled storage,” Brannan said.